Only a week to go before the new Leonard Cohen album, ‘Old Ideas’, but in the meantime, here’s a track from an album that I didn’t hear last year (or it would have been high on my list below) but got for my birthday this week. I’ve been a fan of Meshell Ndegeocello since buying her classic break-up album Bitter in Portland, Maine on a road trip round the US in 1999. Her work moves between rock, jazz and soul and is consistently absorbing. She writes everything she performs, so I was surprised to find Leonard Cohen’s Chelsea Hotel on the new record. I’m not much of a fan of Cohen cover versions. A few are OK. Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat is pretty good.…
Have to confess that I still haven’t got round to watching The Killing. Managed the first few minutes of both the Danish and US versions, but neither looked worth a 20 episode commitment. I expect I’ll get round to the Danish version in time, but don’t hold your breath. There’s a glut of good TV at the moment and long may it last. This is a time when a four star funny series like Bored To Death gets cancelled after its second series and the best drama on television (for my money, were I allowed to pay for it) Breaking Bad doesn’t have a UK taker for its fantastic third series, or, at the time of writing, a scheduled dvd release. Mad. Meantime, backed up…
Here, for those of you of a trainspottery persuasion, are my 40 favourite albums of 2011. Plus, as a bonus, one of two tracks from an underpublicised limited edition Christmas single by Rumer. This is a Gilbert O’Sullivan song, which always sounded rather mawkish in his version, but she respects the innocence of the lyric and adds some romance. Rather special. Oh, and a track from The War On Drugs, who would have made it onto my best of year comp, only I didn’t get the album until December 23rd. Fantastic stuff. Rumer – We Will The War On Drugs – Brothers PAUL SIMON – So Beautiful Or So What THE ARCTIC MONKEYS – Suck It And See THE WAR ON DRUGS – Slave Ambient…